AT&T Swears $10 DSL Is Available, But Only If You Don't Follow Their Directions

By pfblueprintAugust 18, 2007

AT&T gave St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Michael Sorkin step-by-step directions for signing up for their $10 DSL offer that did not work. Sorkin had joined in us reprimanding AT&T for hiding the $10 DSL package that will surely usher in the apocalypse if ever found by customers. AT&T told Sorkin the whole hiding the ultra-cheap internet service thing was just a big misunderstanding:

AT&T spokesman Kerry Hibbs says the company hears you and “We’ve changed our website to make our $10 DSL offer more prominent and easier to find.”

So we tried again — and still couldn’t get it to work.

What a surprise. Look, AT&T, if you are pretending to hear us, then do the following: Add a $10 DSL option on your homepage. Revolutionary, ain’t it? We know web developers charge outrageous hourly rates, so we have taken the liberty to create a mockup for you:When Sorkin pointed out that AT&T’s confusing directions again did not work, they sent him yet another set of directions:

Comments

Edit Your Comment

I rarely say this, but it’s time to call the lawyer and have him ask about the $10 DSL. Yeah, waste of money, but there should be four options on the website instead of three and one super secret squirrel option that you have to do the secret handshake with ATT to get.

When I go to http://www.att.com, there is nothing “in the middle of the home page” that says, “View more internet services.” There is a tab that says, “Internet.”

If I click on that tab, I get a link that says, “View Internet services.” Clicking on that, I get a page that wants to know where I live. When I enter my ZIP code, I get a page with four plans, the cheapest of which is $19.95. There’s a small box at the bottom-left of the screen (it took me a while to find it) that says, “DSL at even a Lower Price!” [sic].

Ignoring the grammar and capitalization problems, I click on it. Nothing appears to happen, but eventually I realize that it has moved my cursor into the phone number entry form to check on whether I qualify to get the service. When I enter my phone number, it takes me to a page that wants the last 4 digits of my Social Security Number and my ZIP Code (again). Sincce this is only an experiment and I hate giving out any personal info on-line, I stop the experiment here.

I just tried it for my address and it told me no matching address found. I did this in Firefox. Then I tried it in IE and there was no $10 dsl anywhere to be found for my zip code. Yeah, real accessible AT&T.

@doctor_cos: I’m using Firefox 1.5 on a Mac, and did eventually find the offer. In former BellSouth areas, you have to click on the link to “term committment plans”, and be prepared to subscribe for 12 months or pay a $50 termination fee. It says after the 12 months are up, you go on the $10 plan month to month until the end of 2009, when the price will revert to the normal charge.

Still, they’re doing their best to hide the offer, regardless of how “easy” they feel it is to find it.

I tried it, input my phone number, and repeatedly got this:
—
We’re sorry. Due to a system issue, we can’t confirm whether or not AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet is available for this phone number. Please resubmit the information. If it doesn’t work, please call us at 1-877-722-3755 (Mon-Fri, 7am-9pm; Sat 8am-5pm) to order service.

Ouch those are some ridiculous prices. I’ve got it locked in at 15.95 for 3Mbps with att (sbc yahoo when I signed up a couple years ago). I guess they know they have a monopoly and can set the prices wherever they want. Or maybe it’s just a bad month for intro offers.

The $10 dsl does show for me (it’s near the bottom). That’s using Firefox with NoScript and Adblock enabled.

1. att.com

2. click “Internet”

3. click offer:
“DSL at even a Lower Price!

Get high-speed Internet for less, plus a free modem after mail-in rebate, for qualifying customers.”

4. enter info when prompted:
“Check now and see if you qualify for $10 DSL. Begin by answering the questions below, and then select “Continue” to proceed to our Check Availability page.”

5. “We’re sorry. Due to a system issue, we can’t confirm whether or not AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet is available for this phone number. Please resubmit the information. If it doesn’t work, please call us at 1-877-722-3755 (Mon-Fri, 7am-9pm; Sat 8am-5pm) to order service.”

6. Switch to Opera.

7. “We’re sorry. Due to a system issue, we can’t confirm whether or not AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet is available for this phone number. Please resubmit the information. If it doesn’t work, please call us at 1-877-722-3755 (Mon-Fri, 7am-9pm; Sat 8am-5pm) to order service.”

AT&T is legally required to provide this service, right? (Part of the acquisition of Bellsouth.) So if they make it impossible for people to sign up for the service (they’re basically hiding it), they’re not really offering the service. Who gets to sue them? Can I write to somebody at the FTC to complain?

C’mon, this is kinda like the FCC requirement of broadcasters having to state their call sign and license location every hour. They’ll come up with all sorts of clever ways to briefly flash it, then obscure it for as much as possible (with exceptions of stations using that as a marketing tool).

I doubt AT&T is any more willing to prominently display the government mandated deal.

Go to att.com and look for a bellsouth link in the top right hand corner somewhere. Now once there scroll down to the bottom of the page and look for “term contract plans”.

Its right there but you cant send someone a link to it because its a java link.

Its also not somewhere I would expect to find info on att dsl. Why would I click the bellsouth link? I wouldnt…hell I would never have even seen it up there if I hadnt been on this mission.

They need to put this with all the other packages because the way it is now is misleading.

Bandwidth costs are so low these days that companies are ripping us off at even $20, in EU you can get 50mbit downstream for $20 a month in quite a few countries so why the hell am I paying $60 for comcasts 6mbps (they say its 8 which is just pure BS)? 6mbps down btw, and like 512 kbps up which is CRAP!

What choice do I have? Not much, I can get DSL for a bit cheaper but the speeds are alot lower and I need a good downstream and desire a good upstream as well…looks like i wont get it unless I leave The United States because the Country that invented the damn internet cant seem to offer a decent price/value to access it!

I inputted my telephone number (since I’m already getting DSL from Windstream and am out in the boonies) and get this:

“(!) AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet is only available to AT&T customers in these states: AR, CA, CT, IL, IN, KS, MI, MO, NV, OH, OK, TX, & WI. If you live in one of these states you can check to see if you might qualify for local service with AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet for one low monthly rate. >> Order Now “

I live in TX, so I try the Order Now link and it wants my contact information (name/#/telephone/address). I have no idea whether I’m qualified or not but the URL indicates it’s trying to sign me up for voice service. Confusing.

It worked for me. I clicked on the “DSL at an even lower price” under the $14.95 column, answered the two questions, input my telephone number, and up pops a list of available DSL plans, with the $10 option at the top. Of course, this could be a post-Consumerist change. :)

shades of “real player” this is. wonder if that $10 dsl, if you can actually find it, takes over your computer, floods you with adware, and then pops up a little “buffering…” message on your screen every ten seconds you try to use the internet.

we currently have AT&T DSL, at $14.95 per month. wanted to see if i could sign up for the $10 plan. finally found the info on their website to see if we qualify. of COURSE we didn’t. didn’t give me any reason. just said we aren’t eligible. the phone + DSL are in my boyfriend’s name. i haven’t had service in my name in more than 2 years, so i would be considered a new customer. i figure they just randomly disqualify people, and count on the fact that you’ll say ‘oh well’ and give up.

Consumerist? LOVE your mock-up. wonder how long it will take until you get the threatening letter from AT&T legal telling you to take it down?

I found it after clicking on the ‘Term contract plans available’ link at the bottom of the Bellsouth page. Oddly, it says “Have AT&T local phone service (Note: Rates for local service vary by state and are in addition to the $10 high-speed Internet offer.)”

The agreement with the feds was to offer this naked, as in, don’t need to have and pay for phone service, just DSL service. Looks like ATT is renigging on that.

AT&T High-speed Internet Service for $10
AT&T high-speed Internet service featuring downstream speeds up to 768 Kbps. is available for $10 per month for customers who:

* Are new residential customers who have not previously subscribed to broadband service from AT&T or the former BellSouth (Note: This offer is available in 22 states where AT&T and the former BellSouth currently offer high-speed Internet service.)
* Order service online (Note: This offer is not available by calling AT&T.)
* Agree to a 12-month term commitment. There is an early termination fee of $50 for customers who do not complete the 12-month commitment. However, after completing the 12-month term, customers can receive service on a month-to-month basis with no term commitment; their price will remain at $10 per month until Dec. 29, 2009. At that time, the monthly rate will revert to the market price for this speed tier.
* Have AT&T local phone service (Note: Rates for local service vary by state and are in addition to the $10 high-speed Internet offer.)
* Agree to pay additional monthly charges such as taxes which are customary for high-speed Internet services.

Customers who meet the qualifications of this offer should visit http://www.bellsouth.com. Customers must input their local phone number to check availability and answer service qualification questions to order FastAccess DSL with term agreement.

I’m confused as to why it’s not offered in Georgia, which definitely has Bellsouth/AT&T all over the place. Heck, I think Atlanta was corporate headquarters for Bellsouth. Not that I plan on getting $10/month DSL, (We’re spoiled by the land of torrents.) but it is rather crappy of them with what they’re doing.

I’ve been tracking AT&T’s $10 offer for about 2 weeks, I’ve found if I try getting to it from Mon-Thurs, no problem, other than it being buried. Now on Fri-Sun, I cant find it anywhere. I havent tried using another ISP other than mine own. But it seems a little fishy that I cant access the offer on days that most people are using the net.

It would be nice to have the option for DSL at all from ATT. We still have dial up only and at 26.4 Kbps at that. I would be happy if they just offered 56 Kbps to us out here in the boonies, and a steady connection, too. As for the $10 DSL, well that’s what I pay for what I got, which isn’t even a spit in the wind.

@allstarecho: There are 2 different requirements. 1) they had to offer naked DSL, 2) they had to offer this $10 superbasic package. I don’t think they were required to offer them TOGETHER, they’ll probably charge significantly more for naked DSL than for the with-voice-service packages, and they’ll offer naked DSL at 1 minute to midnight on the very last day they can possibly convince the feds to let them postpone it to. There’s no technical impediment to providing DSL without dialtone, they just don’t want to.

I noticed the Verizon Wireless site has done something very similar. They hide the activation webpage where you can turn on a phone that you bought 3rd party (like Ebay / Craigslist ) to switch your existing verizon service.

Try it on their website. The page doesn’t exist in any support, customer service, FAQ, etc.

I had to go to google to find that page, after I was logged in (as it is an https page).

Why is this? It costs you money to activate a phone you bought, if you call customer service. It is free via the website. Now, I like Verizon customer service – they are very pleasant to work with and rarely give me any guff. But the cost is more of the point here, like the AT&T kerfluffle.

when I try it, I’m redirected to a BellSouth page (guess that rebranding isn’t quite done yet). I see:

DSL at even a Lower Price!

Get high-speed Internet for less, for qualifying customers.

Â» Click here to enter your number to see if you qualify

…over on the side, and when I click it, it points me to the standard “check availability” box. When I enter my #, it then says that I don’t have a BellSouth account and need to call up and get one before ordering service.

Um, I don’t want to order service, and shouldn’t have to have a home phone line from them to check it. Bastards.

ps: they also wanted a $750 deposit to convert my iPhone plan from prepaid to postpaid. My credit is bad, but so bad that they want a year’s worth of service cost for a deposit? No thanks.

@mantari: Actually, we just switched to “naked” DSL with att. We have t-mobile for our cell phones and NEVER use a land line. You need to literally hang up on people until you get someone who knows what you are talking about–most sales reps will deny it and say that you at least need a cell phone with them. When we finally got someone who said, “oh yeah– this is totally possible,” we still had to be transferred to another person who read off on a list of “why you should keep your land line” Excuses included: No 911 access and you can’t get digital cable. When we told the lady, “the only people that call our land line are telemarketers,” her response was, “Oh, I just unplug my phone when I’m at home!” Seriously? An extra $30 a month or some crap so I can just leave my phone unplugged?? Try again.

This one’s funny:
Clicking the link and entering my home zip code, I end up at the message, “This promotion is available to business customers only. If you are a residential customer, please call our residential customer service center at 1-877-722-3755 Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm PT to find out about the great residential offers we have available for you.”

If I enter my work place’s telephone number, I get the message, “This promotion is available to residential customers only. If you are a business customer, please call our business customer service center at 1-877-722-3755 Monday through Friday, 8 am to 5 pm PT to find out about the great business offers we have available for you.”

I don’t see a single BellSouth button or “DSL at even a Lower Price!” link. The only thing I found even mentioning $10 DSL was in the “Terms and Conditions/See Important Details” link on the bottom of the pricing page. However, even with this, there are no instructions to order the package!

AT&T YAHOO! HIGH-SPEED INTERNET:

Residential AT&T Yahoo! High-Speed Internet customers only. Basic speed ($10.00 per month) available for new customers only. New customer is defined as not having AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet or BellSouth High Speed Internet in the past 12-months. Purchase of local service from the applicable AT&T incumbent local exchange carrier required. This is a limited time offer and is only available for AT&T Yahoo! High Speed Internet. Static IP products not included. Speed references based on maximum downstream DSL synch rates and may vary. $150-$200 additional charge will apply if technician install is required or desired. Billing begins on the date service is provisioned by AT&T, even if customer has not yet registered. Service not available in all areas. Subject to change without notice. Maximum speed achieved depends on customer location. Acceptance of Terms of Service required. Taxes and additional fees extra. Other restrictions, including credit restrictions and qualification, apply. Price expires on 12/29/09.

AT&T has until the end of 2007 to offer “naked dsl” per the agreement with the FCC when they bought Bellsouth…so of course they’re going to wait as long as possible before offering that in order to get as many people to sign up for their overpriced land line service.

Well I would have to say that to vote with your wallet but actually that would make no sense nor to complain or demand especially when you’re continuously are begging on your knees to feed the monster or rather feed the pig. I recall a bible verse that says, “Don’t throw your pearls before swine”. Basically all you users are enablers if you keep the carrot dangling in front of the mule it will get up and follow it. But does anyone truly listen umh… No. They complain but a complaint with out a constructive suggestion and then an action is worthless. The reporter wrote the article for a reason to make you aware so that you do one thing to all these wonderful monsters (The Verizon’s, The Bell’s, The AT&T’s) to stop paying and do nothing and to remember and to never go back. After the withdrawal you’ll all be right as rain. Trust me. (Yes it really is that easy)

I have the AT&T $10.00 DSL and it has been since it was first offered. Clark alerted us and how to get it when it was first offered. It takes a litle bit of patience but it is indeed available, at least it was, and I found it following Clark,s initial instructions.

I have AT&T and apparently I’m in a contract, even though I’m paying the non-contract price. Meh…I’m dumping them in January when my 6 month “contract” is up. I hate the jack-booted thug approach to customer service and they can suck it.

i know we are all hopelessly addicted to our technologies of communication, but the only way companies like at&t are ever gonna change, is if you stop feeding them money.

not like it would ever happen, but imagine if everyone who’s fed up with this garbage agreed on a specific date (1-1-08) to cancel any and all of their services from or related to at&t. furthermore, don’t pay them their cancellation fee(s), because of their breach of contract (take your pick from the stories on consumerist). be sure to explain that when canceling and pay your final bill sans early termination fees right then and there.

you may not hear much about it immediately, but if they lose even 10% of their customer base in a single day, come a few months later it will be a much different story when reports to stock holders and other public information is available.

Why would anyone want this $10.00 dsl service. The fact is it is almost dial up speed, no one is going to be happy with it and ATT makes absolutely no money. Should they make it easier to find? Of coarse, but ATT and Verizon both know exactly how far they can stretch the rules with the current administration.